Field of the Invention and Related Art
The present invention relates to a nameplate apparatus incorporating a communication unit.
In general, a nameplate for displaying a name and the like, which is detachably mounted on an individual in a firm or company, is formed in a rectangular thin film. The front surface of the nameplate body, has a portion into which a piece of paper can be inserted, and a name or the like is written on the piece of paper. A holding member by which the nameplate body is installed on a wearer, is mounted on a rear surface of the nameplate body. Then, such nameplates are distributed to, for instance, either staff members of a department store and a supermarket, or attendants of a party. To announce a name of an individual to others, the nameplate is usually mounted on his breast pocket.
However, such a conventional nameplate has only a limited function. That is to say, only the name of the nameplate holder and the name of the department to which this nameplate holder belongs can be merely recognized by observing the indications written on the nameplate by other persons. Accordingly, the conventional nameplate has a very narrow use.
In, on the other hand, an electronic cash register (referred to as an "ECR") since sales data entered into the ECR is totalized based upon each of staff members who has entered the sales data, an identification code allocated to a staff member must be input into the ECR before commencement of the input operation of the sales data. Two typical methods to enter the identification code into an ECR have been proposed. According to one conventional entering method, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,030, the numerical keys of the keyboard are operated to enter the staff members own identification code into the ECR. In the other conventional entering method, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,439, the identification code is entered into the ECR by manipulating one switch allocated to the specific staff member among a plurality of staff member switches provided on the keyboard.
However, a staff member must perform cumbersome key operations in any conventional code entry methods, which gives a heavy load on the staff. Moreover, a staff member sometimes forgets or mistakenly performs the code entering operation, so that the sales totalization for each staff member cannot be correctly realized.